Amati Swedish Gunboat Build – Part 4

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Ship modeler Clare Hess posts his progress on his group build of the Swedish Gunboat kit by Amati (Cannoniera Svedese). This is an inexpensive kit that offers some challenges as described his blog posts.

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Well, I did not end up finish this model for the IPMS show in San Jose in March. I decided to set it aside to let others in our build group catch-up, though I know that two of the members are at least as far along as I am. Anyway, I had work to do to for my display of Japanese boats, which ran from March 1st through the 31st.

Then, last weekend, we had a ship modelers’ get-together again at the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum. It’s been the usual 3 months since our last gathering and it was good to see the fellow ship modelers and their projects again.

Only one other member of the Swedish Gunboat Project group brought his model, but he’s new to ship modeling and pressing ahead. I originally thought I would just wait for the other two members, who have been too tied…

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New RC Kits from Amati Now in Stock

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We are excited to have received two brand new, beautiful RC kits from Amati: the Bellezza and the Sexy Lady.

The Bellezza

The Bellezza

The Sexy Lady

The Sexy Lady

These are BIG models, designed for RC operation. They’re also very easy to assemble and will look nice on the water or on display. The kits don’t include any RC equipment, nor do they include running hardware. So you’ll need to add  your own components, though word has it that we’ll be getting some running hardware sets that will work for these models.

The kits feature fiberglass hull with beautiful mahogany decking already in place. The vinyl seats are already made, you simply need to glue them into place, along with the detail accessories. Note that the display stand shown in the photos is not included.

Perfectly detailed fiberglass hull ready for you to add your own running hardware.

These 1/10-scale Italian Runabouts measure 33.5″ long, 11.8″ wide, and about 4.7″ high. They will look great running on the water this Summer!

Some of the accessories of the Bellezza.

The chrome parts of the Sexy Lady.

Vinyl seats and pads from the Sexy Lady kit.

 

These are a very good buy at $169 each. Check out the Bellezza and the Sexy Lady, along with our full line of Amati products at Ages of Sail.

 

New Deans Marine Shipment

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If you’ve been looking for Deans Marine kits on our website, you probably noticed that we’ve been out of stock on a number of the more popular products. But, we recently received a new shipment from Deans Marine. So, if you’ve been waiting for your ship to come in, check out the new stock!

Christiaan Bruning – RC Ready kit from Deans Marine

For those of you not familiar with this line of kits from the UK, the company makes a line of very fine kits designed for RC operation. They featured fiberglass hulls and details in plastic, wood, cast alloy, resin, and photo etched brass.

There’s a wide range of subjects including harbor tugs, trawlers, warships and such. But, one of the more interesting offerings are their large, modern merchant ships.

Merchant Ship Muirneag

They offer several, mostly in 1/96 or 1/100 scales. The models are large and ready for RC operation, but they also make really interesting static displays. Their Fairwind kit, is 1/76-scale, very close to railroad modelers’ HO scale, which would make for a really interesting addition to a port side railroad layout.

1/76-scale M.V. Fairwind

The Deans Marine also produces a line of Compact kits, which is made up of smaller vessels, mostly at the same scale as the big ships. These kits are also design for RC operation, but their smaller sizes make them a bit handier to take to the water, with most models being under 20″ long.

Here’s just a small selection of the Deans Marine kits we carry. Get ready for Summer and check out the full line at Ages of Sail.

Shipment of Corel Kits Just In

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Corel is one of the classic European ship model manufacturers that still produces some of the most stunning looking wooden ship model kits today. They’ve been producing classic wooden ship model kits since 1971, and their kits are among the most recognizable today.

Corel’s 74-gun ship of the line HMS Bellona.

We just received a new shipment of Corel kits, replenishing our stocks. 41 kits to choose from and everything we list in stock is ready to ship TODAY!

Corel’s 17th Century Swedish warship Wasa includes some 350 gilded metal decorations.

The Wasa Gun Deck Section is a small, but very detailed kit.

Corel is well known for their model of large 17th and 18th century warships, best suited for advanced ship modelers, but they also has a range of smaller subjects, suitable for the beginning builder, or the experienced builder looking for a smaller project.

Corel’s 1:25-scale Chesapeake Bay “Flattie”

Corel’s 1:25-scale “Sloup” French fishing boat

Check out the full range of Corel wooden ship model kits at Ages of Sail.

New Windjammer Kits Exclusive

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Ages of Sail has received a shipment of three remaining  Windjammer series kits that were originally produced in 2009-2011 as a combined venture between Billing Boats USA (now part of Ages of Sail) and Billing Boats Denmark. The kits include: the Monterey Fishing Boat, the Hoga Harbor Tug and the Vikingship Nordlandsbåden. These are in stock and ready to ship.

 

Monterey Fishing Boat

Billing Boats Monterey Fishing Boat

The RC capable Monterey Fishing Boat is back. This 1:20-scale model measures just 19.3″ long and 5.7″ high. The prop and propeller shaft are designed for RC operation. The original Montereys were once a common sight in San Francsico where they were built as an adaptation of the Italian felucca.

 

Harbor Tug Hoga (YT-146)

Billing Boats Harbor Tug Hoga

The Hoga is another returning kit from Billing Boats.  She was a United States Navy Woban-class district harbor tug named after the Sioux Indian word for “fish.” After World War II, the tug was known as Port of Oakland and then City of Oakland when she was a fireboat in that city.

Launched in 1940, she was assigned to duty at Pearl Harbor. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, she fought for 48 hours without a break, putting out fires, towing damaged warships and rescuing seamen.

The kit is a 1:50-scale model of this distinguished vessel measuring 24.4″ long and 12.2″ high.

Nordlandsbåden Vikingship

Billing Boats Nordlandsbåder

Nordlandsbåden is a type of Vikingship from Northern Norway, and dates from the 17th Century. As a fishing boat it saw its most popular days from the 18th Century until the appearance of engine-driven fishing boats.

These boats were extremely efficient and seaworthy. They represent a shipping culture and form which originates from the days of the Vikings. The boats are still built today, and they compete in races and regattas along the Northern coasts.

The Nordlandsbåden kit is 1:20-scale, measures 28″ long and 28″ high.

Check out these and other Billing Boats kits at Ages of Sail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A 1/72-Scale HMS Mercury Card Model

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This past weekend, we had a vendor table at the IPMS show in San Jose, and had a chance to talk to many people, including a number of customers. One of them, Ron Palma, is building a 1/72-scale model of the British sixth-rate frigate HMS Mercury from Shipyards Laser Cardboard Kit series.

Yesterday, he sent along some progress photos and said that we could share them, which we are very excited to do!

Ron has the hull mostly completed and copper sheathed. Keep in mind that while the frieze work is included in the kit, the whole model does not come pre-printed. So, the excellent paint job is Ron’s handiwork. He commented that the cannon barrels have been taped to protect them from the clear-coat overspray he gave the hull.

Ron’s done an outstanding job, but commented on how well this Shipyard kit has been engineered. He’s getting pretty close to starting the rigging on this model. When completed, the 3-masted warship model will measure 34-1/2″ long.

We’ll keep you posted on Ron’s very inspiring card model. In the meantime, if you are interested in this particular kit, you can find it here on Ages of Sail: HMS Mercury Laser Cardboard Kit. These kits include all parts laser-cut, with pre-printed frieze art, cast resin figurehead, pre-cut and printed cloth sails, turned brass cannons and swivel guns, wooden dowels for the masts and yardarms, rigging line, paint and brushes, plus an a nice photographic set of instructions.

We also carry the smaller 1/96-scale Paper Model kit. The Paper Model series kits are more basic, but include all the basic parts pre-printed in color on high quality paper. You are required to laminate paper to create the necessary thickness for the parts. You’ll also have to provide your own dowels and sail material. However, we’ll soon be adding Shipyard’s masting sets and sail sets to our website as we have all those items in stock now. Check out the kit on Ages of Sail: HMS Mercury Paper Model.

Watch for future updates on Ron’s HMS Mercury model.

New Deans Marine Shipment

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We just received a new shipment of kits from Deans Marine kits from the U.K.  We’ve updated our inventory and now have most of the kits back in stock. Here are some examples of these fine kits:

 

Deans Marine Anna-Marie
Anna-Marie
Anna-Marie
Cristian Brunnings
USS Kidd
USS Kidd
Sir Francis Drake / Sir Walter Raleigh
Sir Francis Drake / Sir Walter Raleigh
Sir Francis Drake / Sir Walter Raleigh
Liz Terkol
Liz Terkol
Liz Terkol
Liz Terkol
Maersk Anglia
Liberty Ship Robert E Peary (shown as the James Elkin)

For those of you who are not familiar with this line of kits, here’s a text clip from the Deans Marine website:

All of the models in the Deans Marine range are designed to be working radio controlled scale models to constant scales i.e. warships to 1/96-1/100, launches to 1/24. service craft 1/48.  Each model is tried and tested on the water for sea keeping and handling.
Hulls are of lightweight fibreglass. Decks and superstructures are constructed from computer printed, 6 colour coded plastic.
The kits are complete with fittings cast in lightweight alloy for the fine detail, with larger items cast in plastic to save weight but retaining all the detail required.
To complement this, fragile items such as stanchions, ladders, dial sights and lattice masts are in etched brass. All kits are complete with rudder, tiller arm and lock bolt, prop tubes and stainless steel shafts.  Our Kits contain a full size plan or plans, instruction book with suggested motors, couplings etc.

We carry more than two dozen different Deans Marine kits. A few of these have yet to be added to our website including the Z37 Narvik, Kristina Motorlogger, Mercandian President, Zulu, Dufresne, Pieter Boele, Medea, and the M15 Monitor. Look for these on our website in the next couple weeks.

Deans Marine kits are designed for RC operation, but also make great display models.

Check them out at Ages of Sail.

Ages of Sail at IPMS Show “Silicon Valley Classic #4”

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The International Plastic Modelers Society’s Silicon Valley Scale Modelers club will be hosting a model show and contest on Saturday, March 4th in San Jose. Ages of Sail will be participating this year with a table in the vendor section. Come visit us!

See Details

The event is free to the viewing public, with a charge only for entering models in the show. It takes place at:

Napredak Hall, 770 Montague Expwy, San Jose Ca 95131

Models are mostly plastic, and mostly modern armor, aircraft, cars and sci-fi, but there are occasionally wooden and other models entered, sometimes sailing ships.

The South Bay Model Shipwrights club will have a table set up to talk to people and show them about wooden ship model building, and will be right next to the Ages of Sail table.

If you have some time on Saturday, come visit us and check out the fantastic models you’ll see on display!

AL’s Independence – Headrails and Rigging

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Shipmodeler Clare Hess posts an update on his colonial schooner build, which is based on the Independence kit from Artesania Latina, but has been heavily modified using fine woods, such as castello boxwood, pear and beech, and aftermarket fittings, such as blocks, cannons, carriages, gratings, and rigging line.

catopower's avatarShip Modeler

Yes, I’m finally getting around to wrapping up the Colonial Schooner Independence. I’ve worked on it here and there, but hadn’t made any blog posts about in quite some time.

The last task that I was concerned about was to construct some headrails from scratch. Mostly, this is one of those tasks which is painful, because the brain says it’s painful. In actuality, it wasn’t that bad, but did take some mental work to wrap my head around where to even begin.

I found some examples that were more complex and finally found some that were simpler. I made sure that the images of those simpler ones became embedded in my brain. So, here’s what I came up with…

IMG_1291

I used castello boxwood for these, starting out by cutting them from thick sheet stock. Then, I cleaned them up and carved away the excess in such a way that it kind…

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Amati Swedish Gunboat Build – Part I

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While I haven’t really considered this among my list of current builds, I am continuing this project for our local build group project. There are still 5 of us, each working on his own model. We last got together back in late August, and I have hardly touched it, hoping that those who are a behind will have some time to get caught up.

Here are some photos showing the early progress on my model.

This kit’s hull is supposed to be single-planked using 1mm beech wood. This seemed awfully thin for a single planking layer, so we decided to use some balsa filler blocks to fill in between the frames. This worked out quite nicely. I think it was the first time any of us tried the technique.

One of the first things I did was to cut away the exposed portion of the strongback/keel. My original plan was…

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